Poisoned Profits: Must Read Book

[Tea Cozy]

For all of you who have been concerned about the chemicals in your food, you MUST read this book. I am only halfway through it, but what I have read so far makes my head spin. Healthcare, with a natural focus, is what I have been going to school for, and I am seeing that it is NOT just what is in your food, but what is in your home, environment and your parents.

Here's the blurb, courtesy of Random House Books:
ABOUT THIS BOOK

In this shocking and sobering book, two fearless journalists directly and definitively link industrial toxins to the current rise in childhood disease and death. In the tradition of Silent Spring, Poisoned Profits is a landmark investigation, an eye-opening account of a country that prizes money over children’s health.

With indisputable data, Philip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff reveal that the children of baby boomers–the first to be raised in a truly “toxified” world–have higher rates of birth defects, asthma, cancer, autism, and other serious illnesses than previous generations. In piercing case histories, the authors identify the culprit as corporate pollution. Here are the stories of such places as Dickson, Tennessee, where babies were born with cleft lips and palates after landfill chemicals seeped into the water, and Port Neches, Texas, where so many graduates of a high school near synthetic rubber and chemical plants contracted cancer that the school was nicknamed “Leukemia High.”

The danger to our children isn’t just in the outside world, though. The Shabecoffs provide evidence that our homes are now infested with everything from dangerous flame retardants in crib mattresses to harmful plastic softeners in teething rings to antibiotics and arsenic in chicken–additives that are absorbed by growing and physically vulnerable kids as well as by pregnant women. Compounding the problem are chemical corporations that sabotage investigations and regulations, a government that refuses to police these companies, and corporate-hired scientists who keep pertinent secrets massaged with skewed data of their own.

Poisoned Profits also demonstrates how people are fighting back, whether through grassroots parents’ groups putting pressure on politicians, the rise of “ecotheology” in the pulpits of formerly indifferent churches, or the new “green chemistry” being practiced in labs to replace bad elements with good. The Shabecoffs also include helpful tips on reducing risks to children in how they eat and play, and in how parents clean and maintain their homes.

Powerful, unflinching, and eminently readable, Poisoned Profits is a wake-up call that is bound to inspire talk and force change.

[lbecker28]

I am originally from "chemical valley" and there does seem to be alot of cancers, autism, etc. there. My husband once showed me a map of US cancer clusters, and my hometown is on there.

[fawn]

Thank you for the reference Stacey. In this oh so polluted world, at least I know that I can control what I put in my mouth. and in this polluted world it's important to think about what you put into your mouth to support your systems in detoxification of the body. The "Something's going to kill me" attitude is an ignorant statement. If we roll over and just watch de-regulation we've given in.

[lindaokc]

Another good book to read is "Appetite for Profit" How the food industry undermines our health and HOW TO FIGHT BACK by Michele Simon. It's all about the bottom line for big food companies, that's why they go to such extremes to hide ingredients, like MSG, using other names for it, so we won't know what's in our food

I'm also sure the extreme amount of toxins in the outside air we breath and the inside air contaminated w/ plastics, chemicals we clean with and even in our toothpastes and body lotions/washes are causing many of our childrens and grandchildrens suffering. The masses are finally waking up.

Thank you for the book information.

[Tea Cozy]

Originally Posted by lindaokc

Another good book to read is "Appetite for Profit" How the food industry undermines our health and HOW TO FIGHT BACK by Michele Simon. It's all about the bottom line for big food companies, that's why they go to such extremes to hide ingredients, like MSG, using other names for it, so we won't know what's in our food

I'm also sure the extreme amount of toxins in the outside air we breath and the inside air contaminated w/ plastics, chemicals we clean with and even in our toothpastes and body lotions/washes are causing many of our childrens and grandchildrens suffering. The masses are finally waking up.

Thank you for the book information.

True enough. At my local grocery store, a loaf of wheat bread had 37 ingredients in it. At my 'specialty' bread shop, for 3 times the amount, a loaf that had the following "Flour, water, honey and yeast"

Grrrrrrrr....

[Just4Me]

Originally Posted by fawn

...If we roll over and just watch de-regulation we've given in.

And we'll pay for it (as we've recently witnessed on Capitol Hill, eh?)

Originally Posted by Tea Cozy

For all of you who have been concerned about the chemicals in your food, you MUST read this book. I am only halfway through it, but what I have read so far makes my head spin. ...

Stacey, does it go into any theorizing about different substances affecting people at different stages (when the grandparents are contributing the DNA, versus when the infant is in the womb and mother's nutrition, versus later/other)? Just curious. This book sounds really good, and with an important message. Thanks for posting about it!

Originally Posted by lindaokc

Another good book to read is "Appetite for Profit" How the food industry undermines our health and HOW TO FIGHT BACK by Michele Simon. It's all about the bottom line for big food companies... .

Ugh (to the food industry). Thanks, Linda, for adding another title to my Wish List. I will now go enjoy an heirloom tomato, and think of the many ways in which I am thankful for it! lol

[Goldenrod]

Sounds like yet another volume to be added to my ever-expanding reading list. I am single-handedly putting some Amazon exec's kids through college, I swear! I buy most of my books used, when I can, but still...it all adds up!

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. Sounds like a great (and also scary and infuriating) read.

[Tea Cozy]

Originally Posted by Just4Me

And we'll pay for it (as we've recently witnessed on Capitol Hill, eh?)



Stacey, does it go into any theorizing about different substances affecting people at different stages (when the grandparents are contributing the DNA, versus when the infant is in the womb and mother's nutrition, versus later/other)? Just curious. This book sounds really good, and with an important message. Thanks for posting about it!

Ugh (to the food industry). Thanks, Linda, for adding another title to my Wish List. I will now go enjoy an heirloom tomato, and think of the many ways in which I am thankful for it! lol

Yes, it does. It references the studies done on each age group (infants, child bearing ages, the elderly), and also reference the geography and socio-economic group.

It talks about nutritional effect, inhaled effect, skin/contact effect as well as the genetic factor.

Almost done with it, and I am so ANGRY that we (as a culture) have been allowing this... the book also references the chemicals, pesticides and herbicides that many other countries have banned, but we (the US) won't.

Makes me SICK. Pun intended.

[fawn]

Originally Posted by Tea Cozy

Yes, it does. It references the studies done on each age group (infants, child bearing ages, the elderly), and also reference the geography and socio-economic group.

It talks about nutritional effect, inhaled effect, skin/contact effect as well as the genetic factor.

Almost done with it, and I am so ANGRY that we (as a culture) have been allowing this... the book also references the chemicals, pesticides and herbicides that many other countries have banned, but we (the US) won't.

Makes me SICK. Pun intended.

Don't worry, we'll follow when Mexico mandates it
Actually, I think we're rivaling the peso at this point!